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MEDIA COOL

Haven’t seen a good review of this film anywhere. Most of the complaints seem to be that Mariel Hemingway portrays Dorothy Stratten, the Playboy Playmate of the Year who was murdered by her estranged husband, as a docile woman totally dominated and manipulated by the men around her.

June 1, 1984
David Keeps

MEDIA COOL

This Month’s Media Cool was written by David Keeps, Richard C. Walls, and Bill Holdship

STAR 80 (Ladd Company)

Haven’t seen a good review of this film anywhere. Most of the complaints seem to be that Mariel Hemingway portrays Dorothy Stratten, the Playboy Playmate of the Year who was murdered by her estranged husband, as a docile woman totally dominated and manipulated by the men around her. But that’s exactly the point, and this is one of the best and most graphic illustrations of sexual/emotional fascism I’ve ever seen—taking it to its most horrible extreme. It isn’t all downbeat (Eric Roberts as the slimy Paul Snider should have received an Oscar nomination solely for the scene in which he first visits the Playboy Mansion) , although the final moments will leave you thoroughly disturbed. Still, who says a good movie has to make you feel good? After all, Theresa Carpenter’s Pulitzer-winning “Death Of A Playmate” (on which the film is based) wasn’t exactly a laugh riot, and as our general manager here at “America’s Only...” is so fond of saying: life sucks and then you die.B.H.

DYING INSIDE by Robert Silverberg (Bantam)

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